novel

The wind rose to a howl and in it was the baying of infernal hounds. The reeds hissed like snakes. Moddy Dhu crouched, snarling, his teeth bared, his eyes evil, red slits.

When Sonia and her family move into an isolated windmill in Norfolk, they find the area rife with legend and superstition. Preoccupied with their own domestic tensions, the Carrs have little time for stories about a Moon Goddess, a demon dog or a terrible flood. Gradually, though, these "myths" start to take on a very real and terrifying significance...

Background:

The novel is set in North Norfolk and the fictional villages of Snitterley, Clee and Thyrston are loosely based on Blakeney, Cley-next-the-Sea and Wiveton. In particular, the windmill in Cley was the inspiration for the fictional one in the novel. Research into the 1953 flood and local legends also inspired much of the book.

Reviews

"This first novel, multi-layered, complex, elegantly structured as it is, manages to grip almost from the first page...A beautifully constructed ghost story."